"Obama: 'Time for Talk Is Over'"

"COPENHAGEN — A visibly angry Barack Obama threw down the gauntlet at China and other developing nations Friday, declaring that the time has come to 'not to talk but to act' on climate change.

Emerging from a multinational meeting boycotted by Chinese Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Obama warned delegates that U.S. offers of funding for poor nations would remain on the table 'if and only if' developing nations, including China, agreed to international monitoring of their greenhouse gas emissions.

'I have to be honest, as the world watches us... I think our ability to take collective action is doubt and it hangs in the balance,' Obama told the COP-15 plenary session as hope for anything more than a vague political in agreement faded. ...

Earlier, Obama shredded his prepared schedule a few minutes after landing in Copenhagen Friday, racing from the airport to an emergency meeting with 18 other leaders from large nations in a last-ditch effort to save the foundering climate change conference.

Overnight reports that world leaders had agreed to a tentative final climate change deal in Copenhagen were greatly exaggerated — and the outcome of the COP-15 conference was still very much up in the air when Air Force One touched down at 9:01 a.m. local time. "

Glenn Thrush reports for Politico Dec. 18, 2009.